Ana glides past Knapp

Ana advanced to the second round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in a hurry by beating Italy’s Karin Knapp 6-1, 6-1. The 26-year-old dropped the opening game of each set, only to thereafter reel off six games on both occasions and emerge victorious in just 55 minutes.

The home player had entered the tournament with a wild card and she opened the contest convincingly, as she was loudly cheered by the packed stands. Knapp’s aggressive approach immediately paid off and she broke Ana’s serve to 15 in the first game.

Indeed, the Italian hard hitter keenly contested some nice rallies with Ana in the early stages, trading some big forehand groundstrokes, but Knapp made too many errors to be truly competitive with the world No.13.

Ana, on the other hand, produced another very solid display as she rushed through the opening set. She won six straight games and was taken to deuce only once, ending the set with just seven unforced errors.

Knapp held serve to love during the opening game of the second act, but again, it was Ana who quickly assumed the driving seat. She won the second game to love to level at 1-1 and subsequently broke the Italian’s serve to go 2-1 up.

Ana added two more breaks of serve and she sealed victory with a backhand return winner to conclude a polished performance in style.

Ana is set to take on Alize Cornet in round two on Wednesday. The Frenchwoman saw off the challenge of Kirsten Flipkens, beating the 23rd-ranked Belgian 6-3, 6-2.